What Is the CIA Triad?

Written by Coursera Staff • Updated on

The CIA triad is a framework that combines three key information security principles: confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Learn more about the triad and explore examples of each pillar.

[Featured image] A cybersecurity analyst enacts measures backed by the CIA triad framework. He's holding a laptop and standing in a dark server room.

The CIA triad provides a simple and complete checklist for evaluating an organization's security. An effective IT security system consists of three parts: confidentiality, integrity, and availability, hence the name "CIA triad."

More than an information security framework, the CIA triad helps organizations upgrade and maintain maximum security while enabling staff to perform everyday tasks like data collection, customer service, and general management.

Learn about each of the three pillars of the CIA triad and explore examples to help bring them to life.

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What is the CIA triad?

The CIA triad provides a high-level framework for cybersecurity professionals to consider when auditing, implementing, and improving systems, tools, and programs for organizations. It is a powerful way to identify weak points and form solutions to strengthen policies and programs.

To learn more about the three pillars of security that comprise the CIA triad, you can explore each in further detail: 

1. Confidentiality

Confidentiality involves keeping sensitive data private and safe from unauthorized access. This includes protecting information from bad actors with malicious intent, as well as limiting access to only authorized individuals within an organization. 

You can think of confidentiality as privacy. When you send an email, for example, you're directing the contents of that email to a specific person or group of people. The protections in place that keep your email private are measures related to confidentiality. Passwords, locks, and tokens are among these measures.

2. Integrity

Maintaining data integrity is important to make sure data and business analysts are accessing accurate information. Data shown to the public must also maintain integrity so that customers can trust the organization. A system with integrity keeps data safe from unnecessary changes, whether malicious or accidental. Cybersecurity professionals might implement access levels, enable tracking when making changes, and protect data when transferring or storing it.

Returning to our email example, when you send an email, you assume that the information you relay is the information that arrives to the recipient. Any alterations to the information that might happen along the way—say, for example, a third party intercepts the email and changes some key points—mean that the data has lost integrity.

3. Availability

Availability refers to the idea that the people who need access to data can get it—without affecting its confidentiality or integrity. 

You want the recipients of that email you sent to be able to access it, display it, and even save it for future use.

Ensuring availability in data systems can be tricky because it may compete with the other factors in the triad. One of the best ways you can protect data is to limit access to it. If you have an information security role, you may have experienced pushback from customers or coworkers about information availability.

The importance of CIA triad in cybersecurity

Because information security covers so many areas, it’s crucial to have one methodology to analyze situations, plan changes, and improve implementations. The CIA triad gives leaders a way to think about security challenges without being security experts. It helps data professionals assess what went wrong during a malfunction or cybersecurity attack and determine how to fix the issue.

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CIA triad examples

Information security professionals often need to consider confidentiality, integrity, and availability in their organizations. These examples can help you think through the three pillars of the CIA triad to make your system more robust.

Examples of confidentiality

An organization’s data should only be available to those who need it. Appropriate confidentiality policies help to limit access to data such as human resources files, medical records, and school transcripts.

To prevent security breaches, follow confidentiality policies to ensure only authorized users are granted access. You can classify, label, or encrypt data to allow restrictions, and the IT team can also implement multi-factor authentication systems. Employees can receive onboarding training to recognize potential security mistakes and how to avoid them.

Effective information security considers who receives authorization and the appropriate level of confidentiality. For example, the finance team of an organization should be able to access bank accounts, but most other employees and executives should not have access to this information. Some security measures you may encounter include locked cabinets to limit access to physical files and encrypted digital files to protect information from hackers.

Confidentiality can be compromised unintentionally. IT support might accidentally send a password to multiple employees, instead of the one who needs it. Users might share their credentials with another employee, or forget to properly encrypt a sensitive email. A thief might steal an employee's hardware, such as a computer or mobile phone. Insufficient security controls or human error are also examples of breached confidentiality.

Examples of integrity

An information system with integrity tracks and limits who can make changes to minimize the possible damage that hackers, malicious employees, or human errors can do. 

Organizations need to determine who can change the data and how they can change it. Schools, for example, typically protect grade databases so students can’t change them but teachers can. In this case, a student hacker might bypass the intrusion detection system or alter system logs to mask the attack after it occurs.

Information on an organization's website should be trustworthy. In another example, a company website that provides bios of senior executives must have integrity. If it is inaccurate or seems botched, visitors may be reluctant to trust the company or buy its products. If the company has a high profile, a competitor might try to damage its reputation by hacking the website and altering descriptions.

You can use data integrity, encryption, digital signatures, and hashing to protect data. Websites can use certificate authorities that verify their authenticity so customers feel comfortable browsing and purchasing products.

Examples of availability

All organizations have designated employees with access to specific data and permission to make changes. Therefore, security frameworks must include availability.

Information security professionals must balance availability with confidentiality and integrity. For example, all employees of an organization might have access to the company email system, but only top-level leadership can see detailed financial records. Those leaders should be able to access that data when they need to, and it shouldn't take too much time or effort to do so.

Backup systems should be in place to allow for availability. So employees can regain access to data systems if necessary, you can implement disaster recovery systems. Or, if a natural disaster such as a hurricane or snowstorm prevents employees from physically getting to the office, their data can be available to them through cloud system storage.

Availability can be compromised through sabotage. Sabotage can occur through denial-of-service attacks or ransomware. To maintain data availability, you can use "redundant" networks and servers programmed to become available when the default system breaks or tampering occurs. Updating and upgrading systems on a regular basis prevents infiltrations and malfunctions, which enhances data availability.

Learn more about cybersecurity and the CIA triad on Coursera

The CIA triad is one of many core concepts in cybersecurity. Learn how to identify common risks, threats, and vulnerabilities, as well as gain hands-on experience with enterprise security, access management, and more. Enroll in the Microsoft Cybersecurity Analyst Professional Certificate on Coursera today.

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